Some real estate offices lure you in with images of extravagant mansions up for sale. Others leave the art of home sales to the agents and transform their office spaces into veritable art galleries.
The offices of Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach at 253 Nassau Street have taken the latter approach.
“Intersection: Four Voices in Abstraction,” on view through January 27, features the work of Hunterdon Museum member artists Terri Fraser, Jim Irvine, Florence Moonan, and Catherine Suttle. Each has a history of receiving awards, selection for multiple exhibitions, and being acquired for private collections. An artists’ reception takes place Sunday, December 4, from 2 to 5 p.m.
“With this group of four very distinct voices, I wanted to not only explore the more tangible intersection of their vocabulary through materials and technique, but also the broader context of how we all commune at the crossroads of our collective, creative unconscious as audience, critic, curator and creator,” curator David Lawson said. “I believe that in that space, there is a shared conversation that connects, engages, and elevates us. I do hope you’ll enjoy the collection from this viewpoint and find your own ways of connecting the myriad elements at play.”
Terri Fraser shares stories through visual art. She loves the interrelationship between nature and humanity and is forever looking for new ways to reveal their influences on each other. “When I create, I feel my way through the tensions and interactions of the natural and human worlds colliding, overlapping, expanding, projecting — ultimately giving voice to a myriad of vibrating networks.” Each work has its own story, like each human. Acknowledging this and allowing each to be heard is her way of unveiling connections between them, and, between them and herself.
Jim Irvine remembers starting his creative journey early, using a paper clip to etch into doorways. His goal is to create art that engages the viewer, by exploring tension between opposing forces of the natural and abstract, the emotional and representational — as well as that between layers of paint, color, white space and mark-making. These relationships produce something a bit unexpected, inviting one in until they can almost touch it.
Florence Moonan’s career dates from the late 1980s and includes painting, mixed media and sculpture. She is noted for her tactile abstract Venetian plaster paintings. The driving force behind her work is a narrative drawn from her personal history, the natural world, travel, and above all, music. Her creative process involves tapping into her instincts to discover and create an expressive language using color and texture. The unique qualities of Venetian plaster, her current medium of choice, allow her to produce surfaces that reveal fragmented patterns and rich textures.
Catherine Suttle draws from painters of the mid-20th century, primarily, Abstract Expressionists. The post-painterly abstractionists attract her because of the way they force viewers to challenge expectations. She draws upon Milton Avery’s compositions of simple shapes, awkwardness, and harmonious combinations. Richard Diebenkorn’s “New Mexico” paintings influence the way her paintings are layered, revealing an underlying structure in untethered space. The outcome of drawing upon these artists are paintings that focus on the potency of color; provide surprise in an environment of equilibrium; and engross the viewer who notices the subtle nuances that inhabit the field.
Intersection, The Gallery at Berkshire Hathaway Fox & Roach, 253 Nassau Street, Princeton. On view through Friday, January 27. Artists’ reception Sunday, December 4, 2 to 5 p.m.
Jim Irvine's 'Spring Forsythia.',
Terri Fraser's 'Ek Saphed Haathee - White Elephant.',
